Australians are blessed for choice when it comes to sport. We have four major Footballing codes alone, along with other major sports such as Cricket, Tennis and many more.
However, over the course of the last few years there has been a large number of new sporting clubs in Australia, and more specifically Sydney and Melbourne.
In the last three years alone a new domestic cricket competition in the Big Bash League has been created which includes two teams in Sydney and Melbourne.
The A-League has added the Melbourne Heart and the Western Sydney Wanderers (and has lost some clubs), while the AFL has added the Greater Western Sydney Giants and Gold Coast Suns. The Super Rugby competition has also welcomed their newest Australian franchise the Melbourne Rebels.
Currently all of these clubs are trying to gain a foothold in their new territories while winning over support, fans and members and creating a identity for their fans, members and public to get behind.
Identity is the vital piece to the puzzle for any club to sustain itself and grow.
Looking at the Big Bash League and the Sydney & Melbourne, the Sydney Sixers, Sydney Thunder, Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegade each come up against their own challenges in creating identity but all have one hurdle in common.
These four teams are the only teams to have to share a state/city with another franchise in the Big Bash League.
While other teams, Adelaide Strikers, Perth Scorchers, Hobart Hurricanes & Brisbane Heat have the advantage of feeding off their location as a identity, the Sydney & Melbourne teams don’t have this luxury.
It might not sound like a lot, however it’s something meaningful for the clubs members and fans to cling to, be proud of and get behind whilst they grow together.
Cricket Australia has, and perhaps unwittingly, introduced two Sydney and Melbourne teams which has neither given one club a chance to get a foothold, but also split a smaller interest in both teams. This also leaves a gap for these searching for an identity.
What are the Melbourne Renegades? How are they different to the Melbourne Stars? With no history behind these teams it is very difficult to answer these questions. The fact is as they stand, they are both Twenty20 cricketing franchises in the same city as each other. They need a point of difference and part-way through only the second season of the Big Bash League, these point of differences are starting to push through.
In Sydney, the Sixers are the becoming the ‘posh’ side. There team has a high number of New South Wales Blues players, helping them achieve early success in their first year – winning both the Big Bash League as well as the Twenty20 Champions league in front of a world audience, playing in one of the most picturesque stadiums in Australia.
The Sydney Thunder however, struggled in their first season and went win-less in their entire second season. They play at a football ground that converts itself into a oval-shape and apart from international super star Chris Gayle (who has misfired in season two) have failed to attract players to the club.
All is not bad for the Thunder however, that ground happens to be located in Sydney’s west which is notorious for it’s ‘battlers’ identity and never give up attitude. If the Thunder can string together at least a few good wins in season three than their identity is made for them. They will become the against-the-odds battlers of Sydney’s west and Australians love nothing more than a good underdog.
A similar situation is brewing in Melbourne between the Stars and Renegade. The Stars are the team that has been seemingly set-up for success with the best stars, the return of spin-king Shane Warne, and the team that gets the use of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
However, it is the Renegade that has already finished first on the competition ladder and is the team developing into the ‘one for the fans’, while the Stars are being looked upon as the posh-tosh.
The A-League has hit the wall with their latest Melbourne club, the Heart. After being added into the competition due to the popularity of the Sport in Melbourne the club has struggled to attract the crowds and fans while their older brothers, the Melbourne Victory, have continued on with their strong popularity. T
he identity of the Victory has been Melbourne itself, they have had a five-year head start on the Heart and within that time have won two A-League titles, they are the successful Melbourne side. The problem for the Heart: what is their point of difference?
It’s harder for the Heart due to the Victory head start, their poor form and lack of exciting product on the field is also contributing to their identity problem.
Unfortunately the Melbourne Heart identity is that they are the poorer brother to the Victory, they represent the same area while being not as successful. They need to bring something new to the table, something the Victory doesn’t bring and preferably, something that the Victory can’t bring. John Aloisi’s side is producing better football, at times, but aren’t close to Ange Postecoglou’s Brisbane Roar setup which drove fans to attend Suncorp Stadium.
A similar situation exists in Sydney, with the long established Sydney FC and the Western Sydney Wanderers currently in their first season. However the situation is completely different.
Sydney’s geography and demographics is the complete opposite with a wide-spread nature compared to the more centralised Melbourne.
The Western Sydney Wanderers have done a great job in creating a identity for themselves, despite coming from the ashes of the long-maligned Gold Coast United. The Wanderers were a rushed replacement. The FFA created the club with a short preparation for the up-coming season.
They held their own against their opposition in the early rounds and are now one of the top teams in the competition, currently coming fourth, six places ahead from their Eastern based crosstown rivals, Sydney FC.
Everyone is aware where the Wanderers play their games, where they train and what area they represent. Wanderers fans and members are getting behind the team as if they have been around for decades and have forged an identity over a long period of time.
The Greater Western Sydney Giants, abbreviated as ‘GWS’, have had less success in this area.
The problems for the Giants started with the ambition of a second team in Sydney, pushed into a strong base for other codes, including football and rugby league.
The GWS Giants face ongoing problems. The name itself has separated the Giants from their local public. ‘Greater Western Sydney’ still has people in Western Sydney asking “where is that?” The fact is that nobody in Sydney had heard the term ‘Greater’ Western Sydney before the Giants.
People in Sydney do identify themselves from each other with a number of terms however: Northern Beaches, North Shore, South Sydney, The Shire, Eastern Sydney,’the inner west’, Western Sydney and so on… The name Western Sydney Giants would of at least gave the Giants a clear area that people already identify with, not-to-mention a larger area.
The Giants have completed one season of AFL to this date now and still there is no clearer definition of what it is this club actually represents. They had a stadium built for them in Blacktown but play most of their games 30 minutes away at Homebush Bay (in what’s best described as the ‘Central West of Sydney’), as well as playing more than a third of games outside of not only Sydney but New South Wales in the Australian Capital Territory.
The Giants have spread themselves far too wide and not deep enough while seemingly using a Melbourne mentality in trying to penetrate the Western Sydney market. If the Giants are going to have any traction at all in Western Sydney they need to take a page out of the Wanderers book.
Make their location clear: where they play, where they represent, what area they are investing in and who they are.
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